DAY SIXTEEN
Jose Uribe, the onetime co-defendant and now the government’s cooperating witness, told jurors at the corruption trial of Bob Menendez that he bribed the U.S. Senator from New Jersey.
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Uribe claims Menendez misled him about his ability to get the New Jersey Attorney General to back of the criminal prosecution of his business partner so that he would continue to make payments on a Mercedes-Benz for his wife, Nadine.
DAYS SINCE THE INDICTMENT: 260
DAYS SINCE MENENDEZ’S LAST CRIMINAL TRIAL ENDED: 2,395
MISSED VOTES: 22
There were no recorded votes in the U.S. Senate on Friday.
And in case you’re keeping track: it’s been 43 Years and 37 Days since a United States Senator from New Jersey was last convicted of accepting a bribe.
BOB MENENDEZ, IN HIS OWN WORDS: “Next week the truth will come out.”
ALLEGED BRIBER FACES DOWN ALLEGED BRIBEE
— New Jersey businessman admits to bribing Sen. Bob Menendez with a Mercedes-Benz from NBC News’ Jonathan Dienst and Zoë Richards: “A New Jersey businessman testified on Friday that he bribed Sen. Bob Menendez, telling a jury in the New Jersey Democrat’s bribery trial that he gave the lawmaker’s wife a Mercedes in exchange for his influence. Jose Uribe, who pleaded guilty in March and is cooperating with prosecutors, was asked on the witness stand whom he bribed. Uribe told the jury that he had bribed Menendez, and conspired with another businessman Wael Hana. Uribe also said that the senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez had accepted the bribes he paid.”}
REMORSE-BENZ
— NJ businessman testifies that he bribed ‘Gold Bar Bob’ Menendez with a Mercedes-Benz from New York Post’s Victor Nava: “‘I knew that giving a car in return for influencing a United States senator to stop a criminal investigation was wrong,’ Uribe told the court when he entered his plea. ‘I deeply regret my actions.'”
THERE’S AN 80% CHANCE MIKE KELLY THINKS JOSE URIBE USED TO PLAY SHORTSTOP FOR SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
— Businessman Tells Jury He Bribed Senator Menendez With a Mercedes-Benz from New York Times’ Tracey Tully and Benajmin Weiser: “Until recently, Jose Uribe was an obscure New Jersey businessman who had been caught up in what prosecutors say was a sprawling and lucrative bribery scheme involving Senator Robert Menendez and others. But after Mr. Uribe pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the authorities, he vaulted into a more prominent position: star government witness. On Friday, minutes after taking the witness stand in Manhattan federal court, Mr. Uribe said he had bribed Mr. Menendez. He said he had given the senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez, a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for gaining “the power and influence” of the senator. ‘When you bribed Robert Menendez, did you do that alone or with other people?’ Lara Pomerantz, a prosecutor, asked. ‘With other people,’ he responded.
CONFESSIONDEZ
— ‘Yes, I did’ — New Jersey businessman tells jury he bribed Sen. Menendez from New Jersey Monitor’s Dana DiFilippo: “ The afternoon’s bombshell testimony riveted the packed courtroom, as federal prosecutor Lara Pomerantz got straight to the point after Jose Uribe, a co-defendant who pleaded guilty in March in a cooperation deal, approached the stand under the steady gaze of New Jersey’s senior senator. ‘Have you ever committed a federal crime?’ she asked. ‘Yes, I have,’ Uribe responded. ‘Does that include bribery of a public official?’ she asked. ‘Yes, I did,’ Uribe said. Uribe then told the hushed court Menendez was that public official; his wife, Nadine, accepted the bribes; and a co-defendant, Egyptian American halal meat exporter Wael Hana, was in on it, too. ‘I agreed with Nadine Menendez and other people to provide a car for Nadine in order to get the power and influence of Mr. Menendez,’ Uribe said. Uribe’s testified his goal was twofold. He wanted to stop the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office from prosecuting his friend Elvis Parra, a trucking company owner who had been indicted for insurance fraud. He also wanted to derail the expanding investigations into the company, Prestige Trucking Express… Menendez whispered to his attorney throughout Uribe’s testimony. Outside after court, the Democrat told reporters in Spanish: ‘Wait for the cross-examination, and you’ll see what the truth is. You’re going to see — this has been prepared for weeks, for weeks.”
I’LL GLADLY PAY YOU ON TUESDAY FOR A GREWAL MEETING TODAY
— Star witness Jose Uribe testifies about bribing Sen. Bob Menendez from Washington Post’s Salvador Rizzo: “He told the jury he struck a deal with Nadine Arslanian during a phone call in March 2019, before she married the senator. ‘Nadine will contact Senator Menendez, use his influence and power to do anything possible to stop and kill the investigations, so my family — so it doesn’t get to my family, and my family doesn’t get hurt,’ Uribe testified … Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz said during her opening statement last month that the senator fooled Uribe to keep the car payments going for years, giving a misleading account of a September 2019 meeting in which Grewal said he had flatly rebuffed him. ‘He complained and asked the attorney general to get personally involved in the case. It didn’t work. But Menendez told Uribe that the meeting went well,’ she said. ‘And so Uribe kept making those monthly payments on the Mercedes.’”
I DON’T KNOW WHAT JOSE WAS DOING IN HIGH SCHOOL
—Key prosecution witness says he bribed New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez from CNN’s Gregory Krieg, Lauren del Valle and Sabrina Souza: “The key initial discussion, though, appears to be one he had with co-defendant (Wael) Hana – a man Uribe described as being like a brother – in the hallway outside the office of attorney Andy Aslanian in 2018. Uribe said he was discussing a mess of legal concerns with Aslanian, his lawyer, when Hana, who had been listening in, pulled him aside to offer a simple solution. ‘I can make the investigations go away,’ Uribe said Hana told him. Menendez, who has sat impassively throughout four weeks of testimony, appeared to shake his head and shoot a derisive grin at his legal team when Uribe spoke about his yearslong relationship with Hana.’ We considered each other brothers,” Uribe said, before implicating the Egyptian American businessman in a series of federal crimes and describing his friend as an aggressive, sometimes cloying middleman who promised Uribe and his associates more than he could deliver.”
WHO YOU GONNA CALL?
—New Jersey businessman who pleaded guilty to trying to bribe Sen. Bob Menendez with Mercedes testifies in corruption trial from CBS News’ Caitlin Yilek: “After Nadine Menendez was involved in a car crash that killed a pedestrian in December 2018, she complained to Hana about her lack of a car, according to text messages presented by prosecutors as evidence. Nadine Menendez was not charged in the fatality. Meanwhile, Uribe was desperate to help a business associate who was charged with insurance fraud and an employee who was under investigation, he said. ‘I was f****d,’ Uribe testified Friday. Hana, according to Uribe, had told him he had “a way to make these things go away” for $200,000 to $250,000, and mentioned the Menendezes.”
TINY DANCER
—New Jersey businessman testifies he promised up to $250,000 in bribes for Sen. Bob Menendez’s help from Associated Press’ Larry Neumeister: Uribe said he held a July 13, 2018, political fundraiser for Menendez, which the senator attended, raising $50,000. He said he attended an afterparty with Menendez and Arslanian that included cocktails, along with ‘some laughs, some jokes, and some dancing,’ but there was no mention of the work he expected Menendez to do on his behalf. ‘It was a crowded and loud place,’ Uribe said. Uribe said he began communicating directly with Nadine Arslanian in March 2019 and promised that he would buy her a car if she delivered on the deal to get the senator to shut down New Jersey criminal probes. ‘She agreed to the terms,’ he said.”
* New Jersey Businessman Testifies He Bribed Sen. Menendez With a Mercedes
*Bob Menendez’s re-election strategy: Run as independent to get a possible pardon (Spoiler Alert: Mike Kelly could have written this)
SENATOR ON TRIAL: DAY ONE | DAY TWO | DAY THREE | DAY FOUR | DAY FIVE | DAY SIX | DAY SEVEN | DAY EIGHT | DAY NINE | DAY TEN | DAY ELEVEN | DAY TWELVE | DAY THIRTEEN | DAY FOURTEEN | DAY FIFTEEN